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Holger of Deathblow Interviewed In Sacramento (The Lost Interview)

Salt Lake City Thrashers Deathblow had released an official video for “Prognosis Negative,” the title track from the 2014 full-length debut. This interview was done with guitarist/vocalist Holger at their Sacramento stop of their 2016 The Other Side of Darkness Tour…..Transcribed by the awesome Tina Mattis..

CC: This is the Iron Serbian with Capital Chaos TV and we’re here hanging out with Holger, How’s it going, man?
Holger: Good, How are you?
CC: I’m doing great. It’s a beautiful night down here in downtown Sacramento.
Holger: It is, diggin’ it so far. Nice & warm.
CC: You guys just come down here from Portland?
Holger: Yeah, we were actually in Medford last night but we played Portland, way up in Portland the night before.
CC: How was the weather up there?
Holger: Pretty rainy
CC: Oh ok.
Holger: But, nice still, I like it rainy so not so bad.
CC: Standard Oregon weather.

Holger: Yeah, what you’d expect.
CC: And, you guys are from Salt Lake City, right?
Holger: Yeah, that’s right.
CC: The weather there is sort of, it’s probably a little colder, no?
Holger: It’s pretty manic weather, It’ll be hot one second and it will be freezing the next day. You don’t know what to expect.
CC: Is that just normal for Salt Lake City?
Holger: Ehhh, At this time of year, yeah it is. But, it will get pretty hot here soon.
CC: How hot does it get in Salt Lake City, over 100?
Holger: It hangs out at about 100 during the summer, not too much more than that. Hot enough to piss you off.
CC: It’s that dry heat out there.
Holger: Oh yeah, that dry heat.
CC: So, Deathblow…you’re doing like a two week tour, is that right?
H: Yeah, It’s supposed to be 10 dates, we had a couple of dates fall through so just like doing a week and a half long stint.
CC: You did it all yourself? It’s a DIY tour? Do you guys have a booking agent?
Holger: Oh yeah, No booking agent, no record label. Everything we do is DIY so I think it gets better and better every time we go out.
CC: You were smart enough to, at least, hook up with Clawhammer PR, right?
Holger: Oh yeah, Clawhammer, they’re great. Yeah, we went through them for out last album, they did a great job and they just helped us with our music video that just came out recently.
CC: Oh, how were they involved in that?
Holger: They just spread the word, they sent it out to a bunch of people and got us noticed a little bit more.
CC: Where have you seen your music video at, that you can thank Clawhammer for?
Holger: Just a bunch of different websites and zines. I can’t think of any off the top of my head, but…ahhh, it’s out there and Clawhammer is the shit, so thank you Clawhammer, Scott.
CC: And, it’s an EP that you recently put out, right? Five, six songs?
Holger: Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is…that’s our latest album, It’s called, “The Otherside of Darkness”
It’s about 25 min. long, 5 songs and we’re working on a single right now, which is going to be a cover and two other songs and those are gonna be strictly for the single unreleased on anything else and it’s be a kind of rare, cool collector’s item maybe on vinyl with like 300 pressings or something like that.
CC: Who do have in mind to do the cover?
Holger: The person doing the cover is a guy named Adam Burke, he just did the Vector album cover for, “Outer Isolation” and, no, “Outer Isolation”….”Terminal Redux” and he did the album cover for our friends in Rest in Piece from Portland, we just played with and we really dig his stuff. Excited for that.
CC: You said you were going to cover a song?
H: Oh yeah, that cover….yeah we’re doing a Motorhead song.
CC: Very cool
H: You’ll have to wait and see which one.
CC; Alright, alright. Don’t want to spoil the surprise here, right? Are you just doing the one cover or are you doing a couple?
H: We’re just doing the one cover and two new ones
CC: Cool
H: We’re playing them tonight too, so you’ll get a sneak peek
CC: Very cool. Are you playing the Motorhead song tonight?
H: Not sure yet. If we get an encore, we might do that one.
CC: It all depends on the Sacramento crowd, then.
H: Yeah, lol
CC: You guys have been together for a while, what brought you into the world of thrash metal and not Death Core/Metal Core and what not?
H: Well, personally I started out listening to punk music and in High School, I found Iron Maiden and Dio and then found Slayer, which pretty much flipped my whole world upside down.
CC: Oh, ruined your life from there.
H: yeah, the usual story you know, lol…And then from there, of course, found all the death metal bands like, Asyphx/Death and all that type of shit and just kinda combined everything together and that’s what we are. I guess, it a big conglomerate because of all the shit we’ve listened to.
CC: Do you come from a musical family, yourself?
H: No, not, really.
CC: Is your family supportive of what you do?
H: yeah, they’re really supportive. My brother also plays guitar, we had a band together called Castlex, kind of more of a Iron Maiden type of feel to it. But, he’s the only other one in the family.

CC: Is there a good robust thrash scene in Salt Lake at the moment?
H: Thrash, specifically – Kind of, the whole metal scene supports each other and has really a good scene booming right now. We got Visigoth, is really big right now on the scene and Odium Totus??? There’s a whole lot of other bands I could start mentioning but I don’t know I’ll probably forget somebody and I don’t want to do that
CC: You could be in big trouble. Ahhh, What’s rocking, jammin’ in your ipod right now? Anything that you listen to repeatedly ? Do you have a top 5 songs that you….
H: I’ve been listening to a lot of John Carpenter on this tour. He’s coming out with a new album, I think…but we’ve just been sucked in to that, “Lost Themes” album, which is…I don’t just kinda cool 80’s sci-fi…You know, John Carpenter though, director stuff like that.
CC: Escape from LA & NY, right?
H: Yeah, been listening to some Blue Oyster Cult, Neil Young and of course, Dio is a favorite.
CC: Is there a particular album that you’re listening to by Dio?
H: No, not really. We’ve been listening to Heaven & Hell a lot, that’s a favorite one of ours.
CC: The band or album?
H: The album…and the band too. But, that album specifically.
CC: Yeah, that the most solid on I think of that Dio era.
H: Yeah, I’d say so.
CC: What’s next for Deathblow after this little jaunt. You gonna go record and more touring or?
H: Yeah we’re gonna try to work on a full length when we get back and hopefully get some really good artists and maybe find a label for one and see what happens. So, any labels hit us up.
CC: What is the current gear that brings the Deathblow sound?
H: Oh a bunch…assortment of different shit, we’re not a…we don’t have too much money for great gear, so we just have….I’ve got a Marshall cab and what is it a…JMV 410 I think is what it is. And, then I use a Jackson guitar and it suits me pretty well. These guys all have different stuff, Our other guitar player, he’s got a Kemper head CC: Oh Ok, right…and he can get all sorts of different sounds with that, It’s pretty cool, actually.
CC: That’s a pretty think sound.
H: Yeah.
CC: And do you have any advice for any artist or upcoming musicians like yourself?
H: Advice, uhhh….Get a label when you can. Just keep do it eventually it’ll start to snowball.
CC: Alright, well thank you for your time, man.

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